The best plan is useless without effective execution The future of business has become so unpredictable that your five-year plan may be irrelevant next week. To succeed in the modern market, you must constantly assess your progress and adapt on the fly.

Preface ix Acknowledgments xv Chapter 1: What Exactly is a Balanced Scorecard? 1 Origins, and a Brief History, of the Balanced Scorecard 1 Balanced Scorecard Perspectives 3 What is a Balanced Scorecard? 7 Telling the Story of Your Strategy through Cause and Effect 14 Key Balanced Scorecard Questions and Answers 18 Notes 27 Chapter 2: Just Like the Boy Scouts: Be Prepared 29 First Things First: Why Are You Developing a Balanced Scorecard? 29 Answering the Question: Why the Balanced Scorecard and Why Now? 30 Possible Reasons for Launching a Balanced Scorecard 33 Send Yourself a Postcard from the Future 35 Start with a Provocative Action 36 Overcoming Skepticism 38 Benefits of a Guiding Rationale 39 Where Do We Build the Balanced Scorecard? 40 Criteria for Choosing an Appropriate Organizational Unit 41 Executive Sponsorship: A Critical Element of Any Balanced Scorecard Program 45 Sponsorship Advice for Executives 51 Your Balanced Scorecard Team 53 Managing the Balanced Scorecard on an Ongoing Basis: The Office of Strategy Management 65 Functions of the Office of Strategy Management 66 Your Balanced Scorecard Development Plan 71 Be Fast, but Be Thoughtful in Your Approach 77 Developing a Communication Plan to Support Your Balanced Scorecard Initiative 79 Final Assessments to Make Before You Begin Building a Balanced Scorecard 88 Notes 92 Chapter 3: Balanced Scorecard Building Blocks: Mission, Vision, and Strategy 95 Mission 95 Vision 105 Vision Statements and the Balanced Scorecard 111 Strategy 113 Strategic Themes 119 Appendix 3A: An Introduction to the Roadmap Strategy Process 120 Roadmap Strategy 121 Four Fundamental Questions You Must Answer When Creating a Strategy 121 The Four Lenses 124 A Strategy to Create True Alignment from Top to Bottom 126 Notes 126 Chapter 4: Conduct Effective and Engaging Workshops 129 Before the Workshop 130 During the Workshop 141 The Role of Executives in Workshops 153 Notes 156 Chapter 5: Building Powerful Strategy Maps That Tell Your Strategic Story 159 What is a Strategy Map? 159 Why You Need a Strategy Map 164 The Spectrum of Strategic Plans 165 Developing Strategy Map Objectives 167 Developing Objectives for Each of the Four Perspectives 174 Which Value Proposition is Best? 183 Using Strategic Themes in the Development of a Strategy Map 208 Developing a Shared Understanding with Objective Statements 209 How Many Objectives on a Strategy Map? 212 Notes 217 Chapter 6: Create a Balanced Scorecard of Robust Measures, Meaningful Targets, and Strategic Initiatives 221 What Are Performance Measures? 221 Creating Better Performance Measures 222 Attributes of Effective Performance Measures 229 Measures for Each of the Four Perspectives 239 Recording Your Measures: Creating a Performance Measure Data Dictionary 243 Targets: The Goals That Bring Measures to Life 250 Do You Need All Three Types of Targets? 254 Strategic Initiatives: Projects That Drive Breakthrough Performance 257 Notes 266 Chapter 7: Hold Strategy Execution Meetings So Good, People Actually Want to Attend 269 From Theory to Practice 269 Before the Meeting 274 In the Meeting 278 After the Meeting 287 Reporting Results with Balanced Scorecard Software 290 Criteria for Selecting Software 291 Notes 303 Chapter 8: Let Everyone Demonstrate Their Contribution by Cascading the Balanced Scorecard 305 What is Cascading? 306 The Search for Meaning 308 The Cascading Process 309 Ensure Understanding of Your Highest‐Level Strategy Map and Scorecard before Cascading 311 Chapter 9: Integrating Change Management Techniques to Drive Balanced Scorecard Success 327 Preparing for Scorecard Success 328 When Building the Balanced Scorecard 331 Using the Balanced Scorecard 333 Balanced Scorecard Implementation Checklists 336 Notes 339 About the Author 341 Index 343

Balanced Scorecard Evolution delivers value to an extent that has become all too rare. We all realize that the world is not what it used to be and that organizations need to be able to adapt faster than ever before. What we need—and what this book delivers—is a full complement of concrete, useable tools for becoming more agile in planning and executing strategic change. Instead of focusing on just one tool or exercise, Balanced Scorecard Evolution moves through each phase of strategy execution in the current environment: becoming agile, driving change, and executing strategy on a daily basis. For each of these three topics, readers of this book will find not just one or two but countless practical techniques built upon the idea of the Balanced Scorecard. The importance of having a breadth of tools in your managerial toolkit cannot be overstated. Balanced Scorecard and similar ideas have been around for decades, but the changing nature of business has given rise to a veritable infinity of new management frameworks vying for prominence. In the process, it's easy to become overwhelmed, especially if you don't have infinite resources to match. Balanced Scorecard Evolution brings the time-tested Balanced Scorecard approach into the current decade, giving managers a firm and practical foundation on which to build success. Readers who have already developed a Scorecard and are looking to improve results will appreciate this book just as much as those who are new to the Balanced Scorecard approach. Author Paul R. Niven goes beyond the surface in this book, provoking genuine strategic reflection and conversation. Grounded in the latest research and current case studies, Balanced Scorecard Evolution approaches strategic execution from a fresh perspective. Businesses no longer have the luxury of developing "five-year plans." We need to develop the flexibility to plan, communicate, and execute change constantly. Thanks to Balanced Scorecard Evolution, there is a step-by-step approach to doing just that.